Editorial: Users deserve to know who’s ‘spying’ online

There’s a line in Joseph Heller’s book “Catch-22,” written long before the advent of the internet, that is more prophetic now than ever.

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”

Online users probably have already thought about this after looking at a sale item and noticing advertisements suddenly show up pushing that same item from various retailers.

That’s just the obvious ways your moves online are being tracked.

It’s not limited to websites, either. Chances are your smartphone or Fitbit are silently keeping watch over the steps you are taking, where you have been and where you are going.

Since the decision in April by the Trump administration to remove landmark rules that kept a lot of information out of prying hands of broadband providers — who can sell that collected data as they want — the stakes of personal privacy have become even more pronounced.

Illinois had the chance to draw a line in the digital sand with House Bill 3449, known as the Geolocation Privacy Protection Act, but a veto by Gov. Bruce Rauner has gutted the effort.

Rauner contends the bill would have harmed businesses and “inhibit innovation without better protecting consumers from privacy issues.”

“This bill would result in job loss across the state without materially improving privacy protections for Illinoisans or making devices and their apps safer for children,” Rauner said in a statement after the veto. “The addition of this policy to Illinois’ existing burden of red tape will hurt Illinois’ growing reputation as a destination for innovation-based job creation.”

Illinois is too filled with rules and regulations. That is not a statement that can be challenged.

What’s lacking is a balance between allowing innovation and sacrificing personal privacy.

The state had the chance to be at the forefront of protecting consumers from one of the biggest emerging threats to privacy — the information being siphoned off without knowledge.

The bill would have required consumers be notified about what geolocation data — those bits and bytes of real-time data that help apps know a person’s physical location — was being collected. More important, it would have also kept companies from storing or disclosing that information without consent.

Not surprisingly, business groups like the Internet Association are supportive of the veto. They talk about such things as how it will “[provide] robust services to … customers and users.”

We’re not opposed to innovation and the convenience apps and programs can bring to daily life.

Yet there should be limits. And balance.

Instead, consumers are being left to fend for themselves. That’s a shame. It’s another reason why a healthy dose of paranoia is not a bad trait to have these days.